Today my Challenger was picked up to begin it's rebuild :woohoo: It'll be nicely done as a driver - here are pics of the beginning. When we got to the shop the vinyl top was removed; i was relieved to see the shape of the metal underneath. Also i took a shot of what the bottom of the vinyl revealed - a date and manufacturer :cooldancing:

Early enough of a scheduled build date (January 9, 1970) to possess no tape over the exterior attaching screws for the rear glass insert :sly:Good work takes time but as progress is made i'll post the pics :thumbsup: :picture: :cheers:

Thanks Neil, it seems the worst areas so far are the quarters and bottoms of fenders. Being from Michigan, i'll bet the car had it's fair share of "fenderbergs" each year. Once the bad metal is removed, the wheelhouses can be assessed but so far, so good :)

Yeah, thankfully fenders and quarterpanels aren't hard to fix. Maybe not cheap parts-wise, but they don't present a unique challenge to the bodyman. I took a ton of pictures of the other challenger to make sure the buyer knew what they were getting into. I have not heard from the buyer since he sent two guys to come get the car, so I assume he's satisfied.

Anyway, you should end up with a really good and unusual car when yours is done. Lemme know if you need any help or advice on the drivetrain setup, since it won't be dead stock...

:jumping: :jumping: :jumping: :jumping: That's great Russ!! I know it's been a long time coming! So, this means you now have 0, zero, nada, zippo, zilch in the way of old mopars at your house?? I believe thats a first in all the time I've known you! :faint:

Glad to see your off to a good start. Hope you don't run into many unexpected items during the restoration like my 71 Challenger RT. It was a Saint Louis, MO. car it's whole life and had all kind of issues from the hard winters it got drove in.

:jumping: :jumping: :jumping: :jumping: That's great Russ!! I know it's been a long time coming! So, this means you now have 0, zero, nada, zippo, zilch in the way of old mopars at your house?? I believe thats a first in all the time I've known you! :faint:

Lol, that's a first in all the time i've known me too. This car's been on 'static display' in my backyard since May '96 - a month after buying my house. Kinda weird with the empty spot back there now but i've been encouraged to come to the shop to take all the pics i want - i'll make sure not to be in anyone's way though ::) :thumbsup:

Looks great Rusty!! Gonna be a sweet car!! Looks to me like most of that will BUFF out! :bigsmile:

The folks working on her have found so little rust considering where this R/T SE was sold new that even though i purchased the car out of Madison Heights in '94, they believe not all of it's past was in the Detroit area. I'm not totally convinced of that though :sly: So yeah, hard as it may be to believe, most of the original sheetmetal probably will buff out :cheers:

Glad to see your off to a good start. Hope you don't run into many unexpected items during the restoration like my 71 Challenger RT. It was a Saint Louis, MO. car it's whole life and had all kind of issues from the hard winters it got drove in.

The people doing the work have both a frame rack and a rotisserie on hand. I'm looking forward to when it's mouted so we can see exactly what we're dealing with :)

I was at the shop yesterday to bring over the few sheetmetal pices i'd accumulated over the years. Well as we're talking in the office i'm hearing what sounds like uncapped headers every few seconds. Turns out they were turning over the engine to see what shape it's in - is there hope or will it be another boat anchor ::) But it actually ran a few seconds - first time in at least 12 years. I'm really beside myself so far :faint: :cooldancing: :bigsmile:

Well, that means it wasn't frozen really solid, maybe not frozen at all. Pretty much everything internal ought to be all right with a rebuild. Hell, it's even POSSIBLE it would run ok without a rebuild. I'd expect to go through the motor if I were you, but you may get really lucky. Regardless, you have eliminated the possibility of the engine being a boat anchor-it wouldn't have run at all in that case.

The rear bumper and valence have been removed as well as the gas tank and gas filler tube; some pieces of replacement sheetmetal ordered and received. The passenger side trunk opening where the weatherstripping goes has received some initial straightening as well. The plan is to work back to front, test fitting as progress is made :thumbsup: Joey spent a few seconds with Meguiar's Mirror Glaze (3# i think) on a driver side spot of the tail panel to bring out some of the original FC7. This rear most bracket that holds the driver side of the back bumper to the body will need replacement... :working:

Is that part for holding the headliner on the picture marked with red arrow supposed to be on all challengers or only in 70 rtse? I didn't have the headliner on my 73 when I got it so I have never seen all the parts under it so I'm thinking that am I missing that one? I have that lower headliner support panel though.

It took me four hours to realize i was looking at a picture of my interior, Kapteen. Whoa, for a second there i felt like Ensign Chekhov :rofl: I can't say for sure as that's how i received the car back in early '94. Maybe one of our SE owning members could shed some light on this. Good question :thumbsup:

The dash, steering column, grille, headlights, and front splash pan are removed. I've been assured the dash harness only needs rewrapping and minor repairs where necessary but i'm jonesing for all brand new harnesses where available as well as sending the gauges off. I just can't feel comfortable using nearly forty year old wiring even though i have complete faith in the abilities of the folks who are doing the work. I keep seeing myself broke down in the middle of Montana on the way to Chryco :nono: :( :working: ;D Whaddaya's think? I took a shot of the SW fuel pressure gauge mounted in the firewall. Street racing on Woodward, anyone?? :clueless: My original headlight bezels are smashed flat along the sides like many but i have a nice set of used replacements that will be buffed clean. Then we'll use my originals as a guide for the blacked out areas. Actually the entire grille assembly save for the bezels is in pretty nice shape.

The metal repair continues as the quarter skins and two piece trunk floor are in. Considering the fact this car was bought new and remained in the Madison/Royal Oak, Michigan area until '94, i'm feeling very fortunate at the relatively small amount of rust in the the cowl, front windshield and rear SE window plug channels. This afternoon i'm taking the SE finish panel as well as headlight bezels so they can have those pieces available for test fitting purposes. We don' need no stinking gaps!! :nono: ;)

The porous under rear seat area has been replaced. Both lower front fender patches are in as are the two corner weatherstrip channel sections closest to the back glass. The deck lid is mostly done being prepped and was test fitted in place to check the gaps out. So far so good :)The donor for the weatherstrip channel sections and under rear seat area, is this 72 Challenger which was totaled due to fire damage in March. The owner filed with her insurance through which she'd been covered for over twenty years and received $24K. It was a totally stock, never wrecked original FY1 paint 318 3sp Rallye.

I went to the shop today to retrieve my data tag; they had pressure washed the engine bay so i took advantage an clicked these pics. The body had been painted in a bluish purple thick jel-coat with some glitter mixed in for good measure; the front wheel wells and inside the hood scoops were painted white at one time. Anyone remember this ummm...distinctive looking Challenger running around Woodward Avenue back in the 70's - 80's? I took another few shots of the front as well as on top of the cowl to try and show how the black was applied - at least on this particular car. Luckily nothing but surface oxidation behind the battery tray, phew ::)

I promise for the duration of this Challenger's rebuild not to tempt Mr. Murphy as he has now thrown in this hilariously placed area of advanced surface oxidation to deal with :lol2: :faint: :working: On the plus side it's now a spinning Challenger; here are some ugly shots of the bottom. Reminds me of Frankenstein in some spots :scared:

The torque boxes are not pretty either...seriuosly, are Saf-T-Caps in order here?? :dunno: I have no problem instructing the shop to order them but as my car will be 99% a driver when does 'better safe than sorry cross over into 'overkill' for a driver :dunno: :dunno: As always all opines welcome :grinyes:

Thanks hezzel. Here's several pics as motor assembly began. The pic of the piston/rod assembly shows a couple of pieces of flexible fuel hose to keep the rod bolts from accidentally nicking the crank when being inserted :thumbsup:

ok, I am going to show my ignorance, and please, do NOT rip me a new a**hole with your answers to my inquiry. I'm only asking because if I can be so fortunate in the future, then I will have my 70 RT/SE 440-6 completely restored. It seems to me if a person is going to media blast/acid dip their car that that should be the first step so that you could see all bare metal. Following the blasting/dipping, THEN weld on your new donor metal. That way you could eliminate alot of rust scraping, old paint and primer removal, etc. and maybe alot of extra work.

No problem KZ. Every shop has it's own order of doing things, the shop doing my car just happened to do it in the media-blast-last order. If i'm fortunate enough to have another Mopar, I will do much, much more of the disassembling personally. It's a learning process full of much unanticipated drama :swear: :swear: but i have no regrets. Once the car is in my driveway i'll post businesses, contacts, friends etc. that have contributed to the end product :thumbsup:

:droolingbounce: To me the ultimate challenger is the 440 RT/SE. I grew up with a friend who had a jet black paint job and his car was set up to cruise smoothly at 150. I rode in it back in the day and when he was doing 150 it rode like an LTD delux another friends parent car at 50. I've been through the rebuilding of my challenger twice so I know how hard it is to wait for it to get finished. On the other hand I envy you having that car. Thanks for sharing the story of the rebuild and pictures. :chatting:

Awesome , I have some catching up to do !!we will almost have twins except for the weird tailstripe !!

:ylsuper:

I spoke with Bill Petrow from Special T's earlier this week. Friendly, helpful, and remembered my asking him to add the black accenting to my taillight bezels as I dropped them off with him at this years Mopar Nationals. They are done and in his words "came out show quality". My wallet is happy because they came out "below estimate". I'll post pics as soon as they arrive.

Russ, Glad to see things coming together, man time flies I couldn't believe it's been 2 years already.

In case you have not kept up with the +camber/strut bushing issue you may want to read up & trim the bushings before complete assemblyhttp://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=41260.0http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=29802.0http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=20784.0

OK here is the formula for the Plum Crazy PPG mix , I compared it to my original paint today & it is just a shade dark using DBC Deltron 2000 basecoatthis is the codes & amounts to mix 1 gallon Code Amount 624 - 1542.41687 - 2000.0614 - 2224.01686 - 2336.0622 - 2448.0685 - 2521.61689 - top off the gallon can

The tail light bezels were dropped off with Bill Petrow (Special T's Restorations) during this year's Mopar Nationals. They were a decent set to begin with, which is to say they had less pits than most although not completely pit-free. Total cost for all three bezels came to $790 + $40 s/h/i. Here are some before and after pics.

The tail light housings will be cleaned; fitted with an nos reverse lense and nicely polished left and right tail light lenses, fresh gaskets. SEM Trim Black was used to reapply the black accenting, it's a near exact match for the original look and texture.

RM Diamont is a lower line of BASF,Glasurit is premier line,Limco is production line, Glasurit is some of the best paint systems avaliable,cost pretty penny too

I see that RM Diamont is the lower line of BASF but how does it rate against other paint manufacturers for quality and longevity? Do I need to worry about covering or garaging my car to make the paint last or is it durable?

Last week i received the instrument cluster, cluster bezel, control panel, light bar, and ashtray back from Instrument Specialties. I decided to have the mileage reset to actual rather than zero. Here are some before and after pictures :)

The trim out began last week. It's not perfect by any standard, as the end result is geared towards being a long distance driver with mechanical and electrical reliability the main goals, but i've been grinning ear to ear with with the fresh FC7 being applied for the first time since January 1970 :bigsmile: :smokin: :clapping:

A couple more of the trim out pics. The original battery tray was just too deteriorated to reuse so a new one is coming from Dave at rosevillemoparts - thanks to Dave, and Paul :)

The last pic showing the fresh trunk rail damage has had me shaking my head for the last three weeks; the last time I visited my car :walkaway: It's being made right but still... :hyper:

Consider it my wtf! moment :o :eek4: :drama:

Russ, Looks like your coming down the Home Stretch body wise, must be exciting. :jumping:As for the damage, just think if you were doing this yourself (In the words of one great American," Don't Ask Mek How I Know " :smilielol: ).. SH!T HAPPENS..Don't Sweat It.

Russ, Looks like your coming down the Home Stretch body wise, must be exciting. :jumping:As for the damage, just think if you were doing this yourself (In the words of one great American," Don't Ask Mek How I Know " :smilielol: ).. SH!T HAPPENS..Don't Sweat It.

Good to hear from you & the R/T.Wade

Thanks guys :) Piece by piece i'm just trying to keep up with items necessary for each step of the rebuild. Thanks to Dave at Roseville parts for a fresh AMD battery tray which i'll be blasting along with some of the smaller parts in preparation for some single stage paint :working:

While the jams, etc. are finally receiving paint, as well as some test fitting of sheetmetal, let's jump back to the beginning. These are the pictures sent to me way back when. I had responded to an ad placed in Hemmings towards the end of 1993 but the car was also advertised in MCG around the same time.

Please everyone, DO NOT purchase your project like I did :screwy: :crying: Don't get me wrong, i'm not whining because after all it was my decision but sometimes buying a project with your heart is not the best way to go. :nono: :faint: :dunno:

Please everyone, DO NOT purchase your project like I did :screwy: :crying: Don't get me wrong, i'm not whining because after all it was my decision but sometimes buying a project with your heart is not the best way to go. :nono: :faint: :dunno:

]

No better advise could be given. My car was in a little better condition then yours when I bought it (but not much) and it was a long road to just get it to be a driver. It has been a driver for about 8 years and honestly I am tired of looking at it with it's crappy paint job, dents, and rust. When I think about all the work that still needs to be done to it (bodywork and paint), it can be overwhelming to think about. I made the decision to buy a project and I will see it through, but next time I will buy something where the bodywork and paint is either done or in good condition (everything else I can do myself).

Nevertheless, great job on your progress it makes me jelous and motivated at the same time. :thumbsup:

Make sure that isn't rust where the hood hinges bolt up. It will haunt you later. Car is looking good!

Thanks Wally. I haven't seen my car in several weeks and i can't get your post out of my mind. If i have to take a step back to redo an area i'd rather it be now instead of when everything is bolted together.

As much as i'd like to be driving my car this year, i am considering paying what it would take to make it a roller as is and put it in a storage unit until it can be finished. Between parts and labor i'm just past 35k total and it's getting more difficult every day to justify where it's at versus where i thought it would be after just shy of 3 1/4 years.

I'll sleep on it and discuss things with the shop tomorrow. I've got my life sucks helmet around here somewhere :-\

I didn't want to worry you, but I thought you should remedy everything once. If rust hasn't been treated or removed it will always come back. You should see the bubbles in my passenger fender that came from beneath!! I have to replace it now. :walkaway:

After talking things over i feel much better about the whys and wherefores now. The hood hinge areas are all good as well :) Using a driver quality tail panel trim piece enabled the fitment and attaching holes to be lined up out back. Also signs that would give a way the trunk floor as a two-piece unit are disappearing. Fyi, a difference between one and two piece Challenger trunk floors are that the holes for the gas filler tube and various plugs are not in place in the two piece; they are there in the one piece. Right, thank you Professor Obvious :poopoke:

No doubt about it, the longer my own car's resto has before i can start driving, the more i get caught up in everyone else's resto threads - here, dodgecharger.com, moparts.com, and other forums i'm a member of. I am constantly measuring my car while trying to keep in mind no two cars are the same. Sometimes i loose track but many times i do indeed borrow other's methods and suggestions, mix them with my own, and hopefully come out with a nice end result. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, right? :thumbsup:

I'll be at the sandblasting cabinet this afternoon prepping some of the remaining small pieces - some to receive color, others clear - and finally blasting my original leaf springs. ShelbyDogg, i haven't forgotten the measurements you asked me for years ago :misbehaving: :faint:

and finally blasting my original leaf springs. ShelbyDogg, i haven't forgotten the measurements you asked me for years ago

Russ, stick with it, do a little everyday and next thing you know, you're driving! I have since took my Mopars Perf. XHD springs, took off the top, crappy Mexican steel top spring off, and replaced it with a good old American :wavingflag: steel top leaf from a used set of mine. All of it is now under my Pace Car project. I'm still interested in the measurements though to see if they compare. I threw away my original A36 option springs and now wonder if my new ones measure the same.

Man, I was so optimistic, had so many road trips planned but now nearly four years in my car is in an unfinished, roller state back in a storage unit. I expect she'll remain there for three years, give or take.